O2 customers losing access to BT Wifi hotspots from July 1

Operator transitioning to its own nationwide Wifi hotspot network

O2 customers will lose their inclusive access to telco BT's UK-wide network of Wifi hotspots in just over a month, the operator has revealed. A message on the carrier's site says it's transitioning over to its own network of O2 Wifi hotspots from July 1, as the four-year partnership between O2 and BT Openzone comes to an end. O2's Wifi network consists of some 8,000 access points across the country, it says, however UK-based readers will be aware that BT's hotspots are far more widespread at present.

O2 customers still wanting to use BT Wifi hotspots will need to pay for access, or alternatively log in through another partner account, such as EE or BT Broadband. If you're on O2 and have your Android phone set up to automatically connect to BT Wifi hotspots, you'll need to remove the network names from your list of remembered networks (Settings > Wifi) come July 1.

Is that even legal? I'm not big on laws but something about taking out a contract a couple of months ago and having access to BT Openzone as part of your package and then they say "oh, we're stopping all that now" just doesn't seem legal ... Surely they have to uphold the terms of the deal they gave you otherwise what's the point in anything when you can just change the rules whenever it suits.

they are still allowing WiFi but through a different operator, ie themselves.

Mind you those O2 WiFi spots are supposed to be free but the only thing I ever get from them is a "500 Server Error" with a massive long number I can use to report the problem but no where / way of reporting it. #fail

More than that, Openzone is located inside buildings very regularly. BT being the largest telecom provider, when combined with BT broadband every WiFi router can be a BT OpenZone hotspot.

So many companys that use BT for their phone lines and have BT broadband also provide BT openzone.

As much as O2 might want to increase their WiFi coverage, they will be a long time, and probably never, hit the penetration indoors of BT. Arguably , it's indoor s in a hotel or vonference centre (where there is no mobile signal) that WiFi is more useful (out and about you can just use 3G on an unlimited plan).

Not that I like or use BT or O2, but not great for business users on an O2 contract.

I've had BT Openzone included with my contract since before I can even remember. After a few attempts at getting on it years ago, then suffering appalling throughput if anything at all, I can assure you that losing access to BT Openzone will not affect you one bit. A chocolate teapot is more useful than BT Openzone.